Accenture and Tripos Join Forces to Deliver “Scientific Workbench” to Improve Discovery Performance
New Solution Empowers Scientists to Turn Data into Information, and Ultimately, Knowledge
New York, NY, Feb. 21, 2002 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and Tripos (Nasdaq: TRPS) announced today an alliance to help global pharmaceutical and biotech companies empower scientists with a “workbench” designed to transform scientific knowledge capture, collaboration and decision-making across the discovery organization.
Complexities associated with implementing new breakthroughs in science, technology and organizational tools have restricted industry leaders from achieving the ambitious pipeline goals they predicted in 1997, according to recent Accenture research. As a result, the industry must now increase the number of new molecular entities (NMEs) by 50 percent in order to meet 10-year growth projections.
To help address this challenge, Accenture and Tripos are offering scientists a new platform, or “scientific workbench,” which is anchored by Tripos’s proprietary MetaLayer™ technology, coupled with Accenture’s business transformation, human performance and knowledge management assets as well as its proven implementation skills. This combination enables scientists to integrate data from disparate functional and geographic sources and expedite the decision-making process associated with bringing optimized leads through clinical trials.
This new agreement will add to Accenture’s services and network of businesses that are aimed at providing pharmaceutical and biotech companies with a new operating model to accelerate the drug discovery process – from target identification through lead optimization to achieving scientific collaborations in an increasingly virtual research environment.
“This alliance is consistent with our vision and strengthens our position to help our clients quickly achieve innovative drug discovery solutions through innovative use of scientific tools and technology,” said Arjun Bedi, partner, Accenture Pharmaceuticals & Medical Products industry group. “Through alliances with companies like Tripos, we’re helping the industry bridge existing information gaps that will help accelerate the move to the next generation discovery model.”
Combined with Accenture’s approach to creating a new discovery operating model for the industry, the alliance will help scientists make better decisions earlier in the drug discovery process; transforming information into knowledge, and ultimately new scientific insights; which result in reduced discovery cycle times and improved success rates of optimized compounds brought to clinical trials.
“The pharmaceutical industry is facing an unprecedented urgency to develop informatics systems that help access and analyze vast amounts of data from diverse sources,” said John P. McAlister, Ph.D., President and CEO of Tripos. ”We are excited about building our relationship with Accenture. This alliance will be a strong presence in the marketplace, enabling us to bring more effective integrated capabilities to manage, analyze, and visualize a wide range of discovery research data for our industry-leading customers.”
Bristol-Myers Squibb has been working with Accenture and Tripos to deliver capabilities that improve scientific decision making. "As part of our efforts to enhance performance, we’re developing innovative information management capabilities that are critical to improving drug discovery." said Shawn Ramer, Ph.D., vice president, Informatics at Bristol-Myers Squibb. "Accenture and Tripos bring significant strengths to our efforts in this area."
About Tripos
Tripos (www.tripos.com) is a leading provider of discovery chemistry, integrated discovery software products, software consulting services, and discovery research services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agrochemical, and other life sciences industries. The company combines information technology and scientific research to optimize and accelerate molecular research for the discovery of new products by customers. Tripos’ products include diverse chemical libraries; collaborative and contract research for the discovery, synthesis, characterization and optimization of new chemical compounds that are active in biological systems; proprietary discovery software tools to manage, analyze and share biological and chemical information; and systems integration and other software consulting services.
About Accenture
Accenture is the world’s leading management and technology services organization. Through its network of businesses approach -- in which the company enhances its consulting and outsourcing expertise through alliances, affiliated companies and other capabilities -- Accenture delivers innovations that help clients across all industries quickly realize their visions. With more than 75,000 people in 47 countries, the company generated net revenues of $11.44 billion for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2001. Its home page is www.accenture.com.
###
Melissa Jacobs
+001 314 647 1099